Newsletter #12

Our International Food Fair will take place on Friday March 18th, 2016 from 5pm onwards. We need your help! We are very grateful for the generous support you have contributed in the past and we hope to have your continued support to raise funds to improve our school facilities. Last year the PTA raised over $200,000 through the Grand Raffle and money raised went towards the ICT room redevelopment. We are asking for your help in making this year’s Grand Raffle the best yet. We are looking for Grand Raffle prize donations worth $500 or more. To give you an idea, last year’s prizes consisted of a $10,000 travel voucher, iPhone, iPad etc… so if you can help add to this year’s list please ensure your Grand Raffle Prize is with the PTA office no later than Monday, December 30th, 2015. Alternatively, if you would prefer to make a cash donation, there is no minimum and any amount is gratefully appreciated. We will use the money to buy prizes for the Grand Raffle.

Thank you in advance for your generous donations. We can’t do it without you!

Council of International Schools

This week we have hosted visitors from the Council of International Schools who came to evaluate our school for our ‘Five year Review’. This follows the initial team visit approximately 5 years ago and the subsequent ‘First Report on Progress and Planning’ (FRPP) which was 3 years ago. The review team spent three days in school, met with all members of the school constituencies, visited classes and reviewed the documentation we provided. We will receive the official report within a few weeks but here is a summary of the main commendations and suggested actions the team shared with the Senior Leadership team before they left:

Commendations:

Clear articulation of the Vision and Mission

Very strong review process for the Vision and Mission

A strong sense of inclusion – everyone is valued and respected as individuals

A very happy school with a strong positive climate demonstrated by all members of the school community

High quality SEN programme which sets us apart from other schools, showing a commitment to children

Dedicated and effective leadership team

EAs are a dedicated staff who show genuine care and concern for students. They are especially noted for their professionalism, motivation and effort across the school

Very impressed with the school’s culture of consultation and collaboration to help with the development and growth of the school

The school’s commitment to language learning, both the language and culture

Interculturalism is a strength

The school’s focus on child-centred education and education of the whole child

Strength of the parent community which is highly involved as well as supportive. Very definitely a whole-school partnership

Sound financial position with effective procedures

Well-resourced and beautiful learning centre – very calm and stimulating

Commitment to professional learning. Impressed with the focus on professional learning – not just external professional learning but internal, learning from each other

School focus on assessment

Suggested Actions:

Develop school’s definition of internationalism, which needs to be clearly articulated

Continue with the focus on differentiation

Provide more resources to promote mother tongue

Continue working with ESF to develop systems to track assessment data

Thank you to the whole school community for the work that led up to this evaluation visit and to the Visiting Team. We are very proud of our achievements and will maintain our drive to continuously improve. The feedback is a testament to all the hard work everyone puts in to make Beacon Hill School such a wonderful place.

Year 3 Camp

Our Year 3 campers had a fabulous time in Sai Kung this week. The weather, although cooler than of late, was perfect. Once again, thank you to the wonderful team of teachers and staff at school who put in hours of extra work, including getting up in the middle of the night to do ‘night duty’, to make our camps one of the highlights of the school year. Photos will be up on the website within the next week.

Community Choir

Thank you to those who have already signed up! Some of you may have seen the British TV programmes based around the formation of choirs, such as ‘Military Wives’ and this has inspired Mr Gibson and myself to set up a BHS Community Choir. This would be open to all parents of BHS students and to BHS Staff. The choir will begin in January, rehearsing on Thursday evenings from 7pm. We would hope to perform at school around Easter. There won’t be auditions – just enthusiasm is required! If you are interested, please sign up at the following: http://goo.gl/forms/fHNKBF35kU

Go on – don’t be shy!

Trip to Nanhai, Foshan

Next week I will be accompanying 10 lucky Year 6 students on an ESF trip to Nanhai, Guangdong Province. Please contact Ms Susan Chung – susan.chung@bhs.edu.hk or the School Office – 23365221 if you have any school matters that you need assistance with.

Student Achievement Outside School

Sporting Achievements

Yet again, our sports teams have been in action. One point to note is that our Girls Football team have had their most successful season ever! Well done to them and their coaches – Ms Mai and Mr Teahan.

Choir Performances Around Hong Kong

BHS Chamber Choir will be performing at various venues in the run-up to Christmas, with our own BHS Christmas Concert on Wednesday December 16th.

Date

Venue

Time

4th Dec

Tai Koo Place

12.30pm

4th Dec

Pacific Place

6pm

6th Dec

Pacific Place

1pm

8th Dec

Tai Koo Cityplaza

4pm

12th Dec

Elements

4.30pm

13th Dec

IFC

5pm

15th Dec

Festival Walk

4pm

Have a lovely weekend.
James Harrison

ICHK Boys Football Tournament

Congratulations to our Year 5 Boys football team who did Beacon Hill proud in the ICHK Boys football tournament yesterday. They were drawn in a tough group but managed to win all their games and qualified for the cup competition. In a closely fought semi-final, which finished 1-1, our team won through 5-4 on penalties and made it to the cup final against DBIS. The boys unfortunately lost 1-0 in the final but played very well and were a credit to themselves, and Beacon Hill, in the way that they congratulated the opposition. We look forward to seeing how they will do in next year’s tournaments when they are in Year 6!

During our recent PTA Executive Committee Meeting, we approved this coming year’s 2016 International Food Fair (“IFF”) Grand Raffle ticket sale proceeds to be donated towards Playground Improvement – Play Equipment. You will have received a letter regarding Donations toward the 2016 IFF Grand Raffle prizes for the Lucky Draw on Friday, March 18 2016 as we will need to apply for the HK Lottery License in the beginning of December. Your generous donations in the past have enabled the PTA to procure sought after and exciting prizes luring outstanding tickets sales that have helped to fund our lovely new Learning Centre and our exciting new ICT Room, “The Cloud”, at BHS.

Our joyous PTA Xmas Carol Concert Hamper Draw will continue and you will have received a letter regarding specific Hamper item donations. Hope to see you all enjoy our musical BHS children and support Operation Santa this year.

Reminders:

Tuesday 1 December 2015 Y5 Bake Sale

Tuesday 11 December 2015 Xmas Disco

Wednesday 16 December 2015 Xmas Carol Concert

Have a restful weekend!

Rowena Chow

Chair, BHS PTA

Transdisciplinary Curriculum

Dear Parents,

On Tuesday the 1st December from 6.60 – 7.30 p.m ​we will hold a parent information evening focusing on helping you to understand what a ‘transdisciplinary curriculum’ is. We will talk to you about the ways we organise learning to ensure teaching and learning is transdisciplinary in nature.

The Mandarin team, Mr. Gibson, Mr. Lowe, Ms. Jeves, Mr. Teahan and I will all speak and show you how we plan and organize learning to ensure it is learning transdisciplinary in nature.

If you would like to attend this information evening, please complete the form sent home on Tuesday 24th November.

Yours sincerely

Rachael Dewhurst

Vice Principal, PYPC

Provisional School Calendar for 2016-2017

You can now see and download the provisional school calendar for 2016-2017. Please note that these dates are for indication purposes only and will not be confirmed until the Government has gazetted the public holidays and our CPD days have been approved. The calendar can be found under the ‘Communications’ tab.

All documents submitted by parents or guardians, these will be returned to you (together with any instructions from the Immunization Team of the Department of Health for you to follow-up, if applicable) on the same week (that is, from 9 to 11 December 2015 inclusive) via your child’s class teacher.

To prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases, students who experience skin rash, fever, acute respiratory symptoms, diarrhoea or vomiting are strongly advised not to attend school and should seek prompt medical advice.

*Also, children who have fever and respiratory symptoms are strongly advised not to attend school until 48 hours after the fever has subsided.*